CBPV and EFB?

[JG_7oaks]

I took advantage of the warm temperature to do a quick inspection of my two hives.

One colony has survived the winter well - they are continuing to tuck into the fondant but they were also sending workers out to forrage for pollen going on. All the stores in the super has been eaten but there is still quite a bit of uneaten stores on the brood frames.

My other colony did not survive the winter. It also went into the winter with a super of stores. They may have died from starvation - but there is also evidence of something much more serious as shown in the photographs. On the frame where the bees were clustered round the queen there is a strange circle where there are no dead bees - the queen and the nearby bees are blackened as if scorched. Is this evidence of chronic bee paralysis virus? But on an adjacent frame there were no dead bees I’m worried that there is evidence of foul brood. See attached pictures.
Could anyone comment? If it is foul brood, I would be grateful for advice on what I need to do in terms of reporting?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi...
The first picture is simply a collection of mouldy stores.
the second and third........ The "strange circle" is actually a circle of bees head down in cells.
The other bees are just dead and have been for a while which is why they look black. There isn't a jot of stores. They simply starved.
A few questions...I presume the QX was out? Are there lots of bees dead on the floor? How many bees were on the frames? Just what we see?
Isolation starvation occurs when a small colony cannot move to adjacent stores so while the colony indeed starves it does so because it was too small.
I can see no evidence of CBPV or brood disease

 

[Swarm]

Quite a few with K wing in that last pic.

 

[madasafish]

Typical starvation. Possible varroa infestation. Heads in cells is classic starvation.
Did you feed?
Did you treat?

 

[JG_7oaks]

thanks Dani, that is helpful.
Just to respond to the questions -
QX was removed.
There were many dead bees on the frames that fell off before I took the pictures, and many more on the floor. Not very many with heads stuck in cells, but of course it is clear they did starve, in spite of same amount of fondant added and treatment regime as other colony, which has thrived. The dead colony was in a poly hive whereas the successful colony is in a WBC, but otherwise conditions were the same. Hence my concern that there might have been another factor weakening this colony. Thanks for all the comments.

 

[bingevader]

Sadly it happens.
We had a swarm that didn't make it.
Was treated, but stubbornly refused to take any feeding.
Is that red paint the queen?

 

[JG_7oaks]

Is that red paint the queen?

Pink! & yes.

 

[Antipodes]

thanks Dani, that is helpful.
Just to respond to the questions -
QX was removed.
There were many dead bees on the frames that fell off before I took the pictures, and many more on the floor. Not very many with heads stuck in cells, but of course it is clear they did starve, in spite of same amount of fondant added and treatment regime as other colony, which has thrived. The dead colony was in a poly hive whereas the successful colony is in a WBC, but otherwise conditions were the same. Hence my concern that there might have been another factor weakening this colony. Thanks for all the comments.

Were the colonies the same size, as in, were they both approximately the same size in terms of numbers of bees?